Fort Wayne church plans housing development

May 21, 2006

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) Â? A church plans to build 50 new homes on the south side of Fort Wayne.

The Come As You Are Community Church hopes to start construction in August on 76 acres it owns near the former Southtown Mall at U.S. 27 and South Anthony Boulevard, which is being redeveloped as Southtown Centre. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for June 2.

The $4 million first phase would include 50 single-family homes priced at $150,000 to $175,000, said the Rev. Anthony Payton, the church pastor. The 500-member congregation created a nonprofit corporation to coordinate the project with a Boston-based inner-city ministry that helps churches across the nation with economic development projects.

"We can be here and we can share the good news, but there are some very practical needs in this community that need to be addressed. One of them is housing," Payton said.

Plans for South Anthony Pointe also include two additional phases of single-family homes, multifamily housing and a commercial district. The church would move into a new building and school, and the existing site would be commercially developed.

"We believe the south side is going to experience a renaissance," said Boston Engaged Development LLC president Alex Hurt. "We're coming there with high-quality housing in an area that has a strong middle-class presence."

Payton said the congregation has mailed invitations to 55,000 addresses within a 20-mile radius of the church for the June 2 dedication and a June 3 concert.

"We basically have been put in a position where we have to create a market," he said. "It has been so long since housing like this has gone in on the southeast side."

Most home construction in the area over the past 20 years has been southwest or north of Fort Wayne.

Payton said the inspiration for the project came to him nearly 10 years ago when he spent a month living on a kibbutz while visiting Israel. He was impressed with the sense of community the residents shared, and hopes to reproduce that in South Anthony Pointe.

"As the young folks say, we want that old-school feel," Payton said. "We want people to walk out on their porch or walk out on their lawn and know who their neighbor is."